1 of 1

Key Bible Verses: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." (Luke 22:31-32, NASB) Dig Deeper: Luke 22:7-34

When Jesus tells Peter that Satan "has demanded permission to sift you like wheat," the "you" here is plural—he's speaking to all of his disciples. He begins his short discourse with the singular ("Simon, Simon") but then moves to the plural, making what he's about to say a universal truth.

Sifting, then, is a given in life and an expected reality for all the disciples of Christ throughout history. You can't point to a Christ-follower, not a single one in the long trajectory of the church, who has not been sifted.

We have all felt the pain of sifting. Still, those of us living in the Western world are hampered [from a complete understanding of today's Key Bible Verses]. We now no longer have an intimate understanding of the agrarian metaphor—sifting—that Jesus used with Peter and the others in that Upper Room in Jerusalem. For them, that word must have carried a kind of thudding weight that escapes those of us who get our food from grocery stores and restaurants and vending machines and therefore know next to nothing about the hard brutalities of the food chain. [continued 10/3]

—Rick Lawrence in Sifted

My Response: Why does God grant Satan permission to wreck havoc in our lives?

Thought to Apply: I am God's wheat. May I be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts until I become the fine white bread that belongs to Christ.—St. Ignatius (church father, martyr)

Adapted from Sifted (David C. Cook, 2011) by permission. All rights reserved by the copyright holder and/or the publisher. May not be reproduced.

Copyright © 2012 by Christianity Today/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

 1 of 1

share this page

Prayer for the Week

Heavenly Father, impress on my heart that you can bring good out of evil (Gen. 50:20), use difficulties to shape my character (Rom. 5:3-4), and teach me godly principles through suffering's lessons (Ps. 119:71).

				Try an Issue of Men of Integrity Free! Name Street Address City/State/Zip Email Address No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. Click here for Canadian Orders. If you decide you want to keep Men of Integrity coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive five more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The trial issue is yours to keep, regardless. Give Men of Integrity as a gift Buy 1 gift subscription, get 1 FREE!

FREE Newsletter Sign up for the Men of Integrity Newsletter (All fields required)    RSS Feed   RSS Help